inftance, the fame analogical deductions ope rated upon them as in the former, and from obferving how the feathered tribes, by expanding their wings, and catching the full gale, were borne along through the fields of æther, they learned to give the fame aid to their fhips, gliding through the tracklefs water. The resemblance of a fhip with fails to monftrous birds, with their pinions extended, infected the minds of all the ancient poets and mythologifts, and in this fancy we find the origin of all the fables relative to griffins and hippo-griffins; to the winged dragons of Triptolemus, and the flying fteed Pegafus, the offspring of Neptune; these were only fhips with out-pread fails, in which the daring adventurers failed on their refpective expeditions, and astonished by their naval exploits an ignorant and credulous age.

In the infancy of navigation, indeed, no fhips had more than one maft and one large fail; but convenience, added to increasing experience, brought into use a variety of both, whofe refpective names are recorded by Scheffer,* but which need not be recapitulated in this place.

* Schefferus de Militia Nayale, lib. ii. cap. 2.

In the progrefs of this investigation hitherto, the extreme remotenefs of the æra, reaching up to the birth of man and the dawn of fcience, has prevented any attempt to fix the precife period in chronological history to which the different improvements in nautical science, civil and military, belonged. But fince, by fome authors of repute, the fleet of Semiramis has been confidered as the first naval effort, and it is certainly one of the earliest recorded on the page of hiftory, it becomes neceffary to state, with as much certainty as we may be able, that period. And here we cannot conceal our fufpicion that the æra affigned to that invafion, in Uther's Chrono logy, is much too low in the annals of the world; and the mistake has, probably, arifen from there having flourished several Affyrian fovereigns, who bore that celebrated name. According to that chronologer, this memorable event took place about the twelve hun dredth year before Chrift, which approaches very near the period affigned, by Sir William Jones, to the collecting into a regular code the Inftitutes of Menu. But those Institutes represent the Indians as a nation already well fkilled in maritime affairs, and report cafes adjudged relating to adventures at fea. On

that

that account, the more ancient date feems to me to be preferred, which places the event back five centuries nearer the flood. In truth, the Argonauts had performed their celebrated expedition half a century before the firstmentioned æra, and the Trojan war had already proved the occasion of bringing out the moft formidable collective fleet that had yet failed upon the ocean, confifting of near twelve hundred fail, of all fhapes and dimenfions; though it must be owned those who navigated them exhibited but little dexterity in nautical concerns; advancing very flowly in their progress, and never daring to venture far from the fhore. Sefoftris, too, it fhould be remembered, that Sefoftris, who is faid to have flourished above 1600 years before Christ, had long previous to this period, if Diodorus Siculus* may be credited, built, on the Red Sea, a fleet of four hundred fhips, for the purpofe of conquering the maritime regions of Africa, and fubjugating India. The immense veffel, alfo, of cedar, two hundred and eighty cubits in length, decorated with golden ornaments on the outfide, and beautified with filver within, which the fame prince dedicated

Diod. Sic. lib. i. p. 51, 52

ta

to Ofiris, fuppofing there to be any bafis for the ftory, argues no mean proficiency in naval architecture, by a race whofe fuperftitious notions rendered them in general hoftile to marine enterprizes. It was the invariable aim of this monarch, through a long and glorious reign, to conquer the violent averfion of the old Egyptians, towards engaging in feaconcerns; and he fo far prevailed as to eftablish among them an order of mariners. These vaft undertakings, however, were certainly above the skill of a people only beginning to cultivate nautical science, and we are irresistibly led in this inftance, alfo, to conclude, that, in carrying them on, they had the aid of thofe Phoenicians who inhabited Idumæa and the regions of the Mediterranean coaft nearest Egypt.

In the course of ages, and in the progrefs of fcience, the Indians, taught by experience to provide veffels adapted to war as well as domeftic ufe, would naturally improve in the art of fhip-building, and either by exerting their own lively-inventive genius, or by copying the Phoenician models, would foon learn to fabricate veffels capable of stemming the ftormy billows of even the Arabian Gulph, the utmoft limit of their maritime excurfions fouthward.

fouthward. For fhips of fuperior magnitude, ftrength, and burthen, they certainly did not want in the extenfive forefts of India abundant materials, especially in those which bor. dered on the rivers Hydafpes and Indus, and from which Alexander, in later ages, cut down the immenfe quantity of timber necef fary to build the fleet of above two thoufand fail, in which Nearchus performed his cele, brated voyage through the Perfian Gulph, and the Tigris, into Mefopotamia.

up

Concerning the exact shape of thofe ancient veffels, it is impoffible to write with any cer tainty; but it will probably excite in the mo dern mariner no fmall degree of furprise, to be informed of a circumftance, which, however, is confirmed by the unanimous voice of claffical antiquity, that the firft veffels fabricated by the human race were of a round form; and Bochart contends, that the fhip Argo, being the first long fhip ever used on the ocean, was thus denominated from Arco, a Phoenician word, fignifying long.* The fame author informs us, that the navy of Tyre confifted of two forts of veffels, the one being round fhips, which they denominated Gauli, the other long fhips, or galleys, which Bocharti Sacr. Geograph, p. 819,

they